poinsettia...

 Hello!  I'm back with another Christmas card.  I don't really need to make more Christmas cards, but I bought the beautiful Winter Foliage card kit from Gina K. Designs, and I was determined to make a card with the gorgeous poinsettia image from the stamp set.    The Color Hues challenge provided me with the color combo.  My poinsettia isn't exactly scarlet, but close enough, I think. Well, I missed the opportunity to link up my card to Color Hues.  But I think it works for the new color challenge over at Sunday Stamps.  Take a look:

I decided I wanted to do some watercoloring so I got out my Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper and stamped the image using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I learned that I need to reink my Nocturne ink pad because I had to stamp the image more than five times to get a good image.  Oh well.  I started watercoloring, but things weren't going so well.  I stopped and decided that I was going to do something different.  But as I figured out that idea, I decided I didn't like it that much.  So, I went back to the poinsettia and kept working at it until I got something I was happy with.   You can't tell in the photo, but the image has a nice sparkle and shine thanks to my set of Altenew metallic watercolors.  So pretty!  The sentiment is from a sheet of sentiments included in the kit.  I diecut my off-white cardstock panel and then decided to add texture to it using the SSS snowflake stencil and Snowfall grit paste that I used on a previous card.  I just love the look.   I'm glad that I persevered with my watercoloring as I really like how the image turned out.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day.

foiled cards...

And I didn't use my Glimmer foil system!  I think about 2 years ago I purchased a Simon Says Stamp monthly card kit that included some Gina K. Designs Foil Mates sheets.  They were fall inspired and exclusive to the Simon Says Stamp card kit so there is not information about them.  At the time I did not have anyway of foiling the images (that I didn't know about) so I set them and the foil sheets I received aside for a later date.  Finally about a year ago I decided that I needed to figure out how to foil the sheets and make something with them.  So I got on the internet and started searching and found a couple of blog posts (don't remember the blogs... sorry!) and learned that it is possible to use an iron to do the foiling.  I gave it a try and it worked!   It wasn't easy to foil using the iron, but the end result was actually pretty darn good.  Once I was done I die cut each of them with a rectangle die and then promptly set them aside!   Recently I was going through my little box of scrap pieces and found them, again.  This time I was determined to turn them into cards and I did with two of the pieces.  Before turning them into cards I decided to color the images as I had seen someone else coloring foiled images.  I think that person (I'm not sure who it was) used Copic markers, but I decided to use color pencils to be on the safe side.   The first card is this pretty daisy like image and sentiment that I foiled using a deep red foil that was in the card kit.  I used two shades of red Polychromos pencils to color the flowers and then added a little bit of shadow with a dark brown.  The leaves were colored with just one shade of red.  I adhered the panel to a dark red cardstock base.  I'm going to add this one to the September Gina K. monthly mix challenge.   Here is a close up of the foiling.

With the second card I was able to use three different colors of foil to foil the falling leaves and then an foil with a fun pattern to foil the sentiment.  I colored the leaves using the some of the colors from the current Color Throwdown.  To bring in the brown from the combo I mounted the panel on a dark brown card base.   The top and bottom leaves were colored with several different Polychromos colored pencils to create the color blends.   I did this so that one leaf was more yellow in color and the other was more orange in color, but still a blend of the two colors.  I think they turned out pretty well.  The middle leaf was obviously colored red (same colors of pencils that I used on the daisy image.  I'm also including a close up of the foiling.   While it was fun learning that you can foil with an iron I'm glad that I now have a laminator that I can use to foil should I get additional Gina K. foil mates sheets.   May enter this one in the monthly mix challenge, too.

I hope my cards inspire you to try an unconventional approach to your crafting!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

for you...

 Hello!  I have two cards to share today and both cards use the phrase 'for you' thus my blog title.  First up is a card for the current Fab Friday challenge.   Back in December I received the a limited edition Gina K Designs tiny wreath builder set when I made a purchase from Simon Says Stamp.  I finally pulled it out and used it to create my card.  It is super easy to use the wreath builder template.  I was a little bummed when I discovered that one of the circular sentiments in the set has a huge flaw in it so I won't be able to use it.  I used four of the colors to create my wreath and the fifth color for the circular sentiment.  The squares were die cut with Spellbinders square dies and the circle with a Spellbinders circle die.  I layered everything up on a rectangle die cut from white cardstock and then adhered to a white cardstock base.  I finished the card with some black and white baker's twine.

The second card is for this month's Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge, Freshly Made Sketches challenge and the Card Concept challenge (clean and simple).  I used an older Reverse Confetti stamp and die set called Beautiful Banners along with the two heart dies from the Love Notes Confetti Cuts die set.  I cut the hearts from the following RC colors:  Piggy Bank, Rose and Salsa.  The were the colors that I pulled from the inspiration photo. I arranged the hearts on white cardstock per the sketch.  The banner and sentiment from the Beautiful Banner set were stamped using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.   The banner was die cut, I adhered all the pieces to a white cardstock panel and adhered the panel to a card base made from Rose cardstock.  I finished with some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins.  Realized that this would work for the current Time Out challenge.  

Have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  MFT white; SU! Tranquil Tide, Lemon Lime Twist and Pear Pizzazz; Stamps:  Gina K Designs; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design (rectangle), Spellbinders; Inks:  Stampin Up!, Hero Arts and PaperTrey Ink; Black and white baker's twine

Card #2:  Cardstock:  MFT white; RC Piggy Bank, Rose and Salsa; Stamps: Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti and A Jillian Vance Design; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh

It's Technique Time!

Hey everyone.... hope you all had a good week.  This week over at the JUGs blog the challenge is a super fun technique called woodgraining.  I hope you don't mind, but I'm not going to give you an explanation as to how you do this technique.  Instead I going to provide you with the link so you can watch the lovely and very talented Gina K. of Gina K. Designs explain how you do this technique (she does a far better job then I would anyway!).   One thing I will say that I learned from doing this technique is that your pigment ink pad should be a fairly "juicy" one.  I used two different pads one that was pretty "juicy" and one that was not.  The piece I ended up with when I used the not so juicy pad was a complete failure. 

Anyway, on to my card.   This technique is perfect for masculine cards and so it was just natural that I make a Father's Day card.  I used the Flourishes set "What a Catch" and some Stampin Up! designer paper that I bought a few years ago that has a very masculine feel to it.  The panel piece behind the stamped image is the piece that I created using the woodgrain technique.  The effect is really cool in real life.   I think I will be giving this card to my father in law.   I am also going to be putting this card into the current Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge to make a Father's Day card.

Thanks for taking a peek... I hope you will check out what the so very talent JUGS team of Kristen, Pam, Lisa, Andrea, Maria, Dana, Kathryn & Elise have cooked up!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SU! Crumb Cake, More Mustard & Really Rust; SU! DP; Ink: Close to My Heart White Daisy & Barn Door; Distressing Tool; Brads; Stamps:  Flourishes What a Catch